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20. Group Home "East New York Theory" (1997)

Group Home, and their little-homie crew the Brainsick Mob, were never accused of being the most articulate rappers to emerge from the county of Kings. However, when Brainsicker Jack the Ripper kicks off this bleaker-than-Saratoga-Avenue-on-a-Monday-in-February-at-6am track (anyone that's taken a cab up Atlantic Ave to JFK at the crack of dawn knows what we're talking about) conceding, "I'm in a world of shit that I can't even explain" you know exactly what the fuck he's talking about: frozen corners, blunt-tarred lips, pilled Southpole puffers, petty neighborhood beefs and hopelessness. A shitload of hopelessness. That he ends the verse promising to kill himself pretty much sums up the rest of this post-Living Proof, white label classic. And on that note, we have a theory as to why, even in 2013, East New York remains the most staunchly un-gentrified neighborhood in the borough of Brook. —Noah Callahan-Bever

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